With our programmes we try and find opportunities to connect learning to other peoples and places. This may be at a local, regional, national or global level. Asia being one of the focal areas.

This also aligns with our big strategic goals of:

Educating for the future

Providing rich and powerful learning opportunities

Connecting learners

.......along with the cultural responsiveness, sustainability of people and place and our inquiry based approach to learning aspects of school direction.

Some years ago I went with a Principal's Delegation to China through the Confucius Institute, more recently Nicola was supported by the Asia New Zealand Foundation to travel to Singapore on a study tour with other NZ educators. It's been a deliberate choice on our part to be connected and current with this work as when we look at the statistics and where our young people are working and living, it is highly likely that Asia will feature in some way shape or form.

Like the recent survey, a NZ Herald article in 2017 headlined " Nine in 10 Kiwi school leavers are not equipped to engage with Asia".

This massive chunk of the of the world, Asia, is something we must keep relevant and alive for our children so that it won't be a mystery here on our island at the bottom of the world and we won't be closing any doors to opportunity.